What makes a buyer choose one product or service over another? When you understand the process, you can better position your product during each of the buying stages. These four stages are: awareness, research, decision, purchase.

Let’s take a closer look.

Awareness

The buyer becomes aware of a needed product or service either through necessity (I have a sports injury and need a massage therapist) or through advertising (This ad says sports massage can help prevent injury. I should book one).

Research

The buyer wants the most value for their hard earned dollars, so they research important purchases by looking at online reviews, soliciting referrals, looking up what makes the product special, or using test samples (if they are available).

Decision

To fill the need, the buyer makes a choice among the different options.

Purchase

With the decision made, the buyer pays for the product or service they need.

How do I leverage this buying process?

As a seller of goods and services, the buying process above gives you four chances to connect with your customers. Here’s how.

Awareness: Advertise. Your buyers can’t be aware of what you offer if you don’t show them. Adverting alerts buyers to what can add value to their life or reinforces the drive to purchase something they want or need.

Research& Decision: Be ready for your buyer’s research phase by asking happy customers to put testimonials on your website.Even better, incentive them to make video testimonials using your products. If possible, have testers that you can mail or place in other willing businesses. For example, if you sell a holistic product, a wellness clinic may be willing to have your samples on their front desk.

Purchase:  Your buyers gravitate to the most efficient solutions. Don’t come this far only to frustrate them at the point of purchase. Appeal to as many different buying options as possible – PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shopify, in-store with any type of card, accept cash (if safe to do so; many prefer cards due to COVID-19). Reinforce to your buyers that they made a great decision. Head off possible buyers’ remorse by following up with a thank you note or email (be sure to collect email addresses ethically and always provide an unsubscribe button). Package their items in a bag or box that says, “thank you for your purchase.” Leverage the buy by asking for a review or a video testimonial.

How one marketing strategy constantly leverages all four phases

Digital marketing touches on all four phases. Digital ads are affordable and come with analytics to show exactly how your campaigns are faring and if you are reaching your target market. Your website or social media page supports written and video reviews. You can help buyers make a decision by using “you left unpurchased items in your cart” follow up emails. You can automate thank you messages. These are just a few of the things digital marketing can do for you.

Great West Digital is Here to Help

In addition to having all the digital tools you need for your business, we design a strategy around the buying habits of your customers, and use analytics to monitor the success of each campaign. Let us show you how efficient digital marketing is at addressing the direct needs of your buyers, while saving you time and money on marketing.